In the ashes of the 2011 election that reduced their once-mighty political party to just 34 seats in Parliament, Liberals walked the streets of Canada in a daze.

Respected author Peter C. Newman concluded the party had moved from the “walking wounded to the walking dead.”

What a difference three years makes. Since Justin Trudeau assumed the leadership in the spring of 2013, the Liberals have been at the top of the polls, and they remain there despite repeated efforts by Stephen Harper’s governing Conservatives to cast doubt on his character, his judgment and his leadership.

Next week in Edmonton, Trudeau will hold the annual summer meeting of his caucus of MPs — there are now 37 — to gear up for the 2015 election. (For the first time, senators will not attend the gathering because Trudeau turfed them from caucus earlier this year.)

At the heart of Trudeau’s agenda will be a promise to broaden the ranks of the middle class, and to address the growing anxiety of middle-class Canadians who feel their jobs are in danger, their income hasn’t kept pace with the cost of living, and their children are doomed to a dismal job market.

Trudeau has not yet unveiled the details for his promise to grow the middle class — how it will work, how much it will cost.

For now, he is speaking about core values and promoting the notion that there can be a positive role for government in helping Canadians.

“That certainly is part of what is our nature,” he said in an interview with the Citizen.

“There’s a ‘in-it-togetherness’ about Canada that I think politicians have forgotten, or at least are selling short in their electoral strategies.”

Trudeau said the country has become defined by its differences — geographic, ethno-cultural, religious and linguistic — and that the “politics of wedge issues” is weakening Canada.

“Canadians instinctively shy away from that. Yes, it’s very effective to play attack ads and the politics of division, or it has been in the past. But it also ends up creating a level of cynicism amongst Canadians that is not just unproductive, it’s not in our nature. We’re not naturally a cynical people.”

With the Liberals riding high in the polls, there is talk about whether Trudeau can replicate the wave of support that swept his father, Pierre Trudeau, into the prime minister’s office in 1968.

Harper, who has previously shown his utter disdain for Pierre Trudeau, makes no bones about what he thinks he’ll be facing when he campaigns against the fils.

“Canadians will be asked to choose,” he told supporters earlier this summer. “We will ask Canadians to think about that choice. I’m going to predict that the other side will ask Canadians not to think about that choice.”

Harper predicted the “liberal elites and the liberal media pundits and the liberal interest-groups” will tell Canadians that there is something “new and exciting” in Trudeau.

He said Canadians will be told by Trudeau’s boosters to “close your eyes and dream and don’t ask any hard questions” about the Liberals’ plans on balancing the budget, criminal policy and foreign affairs.

So far, his warnings don’t appear to be resonating. Earlier this week, EKOS Research released a poll showing the Liberals at 38 per cent in public support compared to 25 per cent for the Conservatives and 23 per cent for Tom Mulcair’s NDP.

EKOS president Frank Graves said it’s part of a clear trend.

“The country, on all of the key indicators, is becoming more progressive,” he said.

“The bumper sticker simplicity of smaller government and lesser taxes equals prosperity for all — which has won a lot of governments for Republicans in the U.S. and for Conservatives in Canada — isn’t working anymore.

“The public isn’t buying into it. They say it’s a cruel hoax. There’s still a constituency for it, but it’s not enough to win government.”

Still, the political consequences for Trudeau getting his appeal to the middle class right are critical.

A credible plan could steer the Liberals to election victory; a vague blueprint that Trudeau’s rivals condemn as hollow or too expensive could turn voters against the Liberals’ resurgence.

In recent speeches, the broad strokes of his policy agenda have begun to emerge, with a Liberal government putting a “renewed focus” on “five big things”. These include:

People: Improving access to post-secondary education would “deliver economic success, security and confidence.” There would also be changes to allow more permanent immigrants. First Nations would receive a better hearing.

Trade: Liberals are “passionate supporters of free trade” and support the Tories’ trade deals with Europe and Korea. Trudeau would continue that approach as prime minister.

Natural resources: Trudeau supports the Keystone XL pipeline because it would create jobs and is in the “national interest.” He understands the Obama administration’s “reluctance,” given Harper’s refusal to consider stronger environmental policies. Trudeau opposes the Northern Gateway pipeline.

Innovation: The country needs to promote its “resourcefulness,” often through leading-edge scientific technology, to make industry more competitive.

Infrastructure: Investments to help cities build, for instance, water and transit systems will generate economic growth and improve Canadians’ “quality of life.”

There are good reasons to be skeptical about all five of these. Where the focus isn’t utterly vague (innovation) or both vague and largely outside the federal ambit (infrastructure, people), these agenda items don’t do much to distinguish the Liberals from the Tories (trade, natural resources).

When Jean Chrétien’s Liberals won their first election in 1993, they did so on back of a strong team of candidates (as Trudeau is now planning) and a policy platform — the “Red Book” — that was detailed and included the costs of the promises.

Trudeau told the Citizen his platform will also be costed out.

“We need to be comprehensive about the plan to govern,” he said.

“Right now we’re not focused on what do we need to do to win the election. We’re very much focused on what kind of government does Canada need? What kind of solutions will make a stronger economy, make a better opportunity, create a real and fair chance for people?”

If anything, the Liberals seem focused on positioning Justin Trudeau as the anti-Harper — a leader who is approachable, open, and — in areas such as his policies on marijuana legalization and access to abortion — resolutely progressive.

In politics, success breeds success. That’s paying off where it counts: The Liberals are raising more money, from more donors.

Last year, $11.3 million flowed into the party coffers from more than 71,000 donors, compared to the $6.4 million raised from 34,000 people in 2010. (By comparison, in 2013 the Conservatives raised $18.1 million from 80,000 donors and the NDP collected $8.1 million from 39,200 donors.)

In another sign of growth, there are now 160,00 Liberal party members, compared to 58,000 in 2011.

High-profile Canadians, from business and municipal leaders to aboriginal activists, are becoming Liberal candidates for the 2015 election.

They include: Bill Morneau, former chair of the C.D. Howe Institute (Toronto Centre); Jim Carr, former CEO of the Business Council of Manitoba (Winnipeg South Centre); and Jody Wilson-Raybould, regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations (Vancouver Granville).

It’s a key component of Trudeau’s strategy — to convince voters they will not be voting just for him, but also for a credible cabinet.

Trudeau has spent little time in the Commons — perhaps just two days a week — opting instead to travel extensively to cities and towns.

It’s a strategy that could hurt him — just as then-Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff learned in the TV debate mid-way through the 2011 election when the NDP’s Jack Layton effectively accused him of not showing up for work often enough in Parliament.

Or, as he’s hoping, his decision to get out of Ottawa could have political payback. For it is at those countless barbecues, street parades and community events that he is connecting with Canadians.

Patrick Gossage, who was Pierre Trudeau’s press secretary, said Justin is much more of a grassroots politician than his father ever was.

“When Justin goes into a room, people can’t believe how much time he gives anybody who wants to talk to him.”

Gossage said both men shared a love of occasionally being “undisciplined and outrageous.” Pierre did a pirouette for photographers behind the Queen, while Justin recently balanced his infant son on the palm of his hand.

“I think (Justin Trudeau’s) natural exhibitionist tendencies are fun, and people like that. He’ll do things and his handlers will never cure him of that. We could never cure (Pierre) Trudeau. It was always, ‘What next?’”

On matters of substance, said Gossage, both men share an important quality: They have surrounded themselves with bright people.

“Like (Pierre) Trudeau, he only trusts a few people, but he sure as hell listens to them.”

John English, a university history professor and former Liberal MP who wrote a two-volume biography of Pierre Trudeau, said Justin has already effectively defined himself as “younger in spirit” than Harper.

He said polls show that Pierre Trudeau is the most popular of former prime ministers — a fact that Conservatives must be wary of.

“They attack the name with difficulty. There are people who hate Trudeau but the fact of the matter is he remains like a Kennedy figure in the United States. With an enormous base of automatic sympathy and receptivity.”

Nonetheless, he said Justin Trudeau will need to “make a break from the past.”

“In parts of Quebec and Alberta, his father’s legacy is quite a burden to overcome.”

Ipsos Reid pollster Darrell Bricker co-authored a book, The Big Shift, in 2013 that concluded the Conservatives could be on their way to becoming the “perpetually dominant” ruling party.

The one thing that could change that, the book argued, was the emergence of a “progressive coalition.”

In an interview, Bricker said this could be what’s happening now, as the “anti-Conservative progressive vote” consolidates around the Liberals.

Trudeau is the catalyst, said Bricker.

“He is a physical, visual embodiment of change. He is a new generation. And if people are looking for that, he will be incredibly compelling.”

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